Kengo Kuma Creates a Dynamic Cave-Like Interior Using 2,000 Pieces of Wood

<a href="http://kkaa.co.jp/">Kengo Kuma and Associates</a> have given a Starbucks coffee shop in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka">Fukuoka, Japan</a> an imaginative re-design using 2,000 wooden sticks. Each stick varies in length from between 1.3 - 4 meters, but if laid out in a straight line they would stretch 4.4 kilometers! The designers have laced the sticks together in a diagonal formations to create a dynamic, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/awesome-birds-nest-bed-is-a-cozy-roost-for-kids-and-adults-alike/">nest</a>-like interior.

<a href="http://kkaa.co.jp/">Kengo Kuma and Associates</a>'s interior celebrates the warm grain of natural unfinished wood.

They had to find a way to avoid aligning too many of the pieces of wood at a single point.

Through careful positioning they constructed a woven mass of wooden segments that form a cave-like space.

The team built the web-like cafe interior near Dazaifu Tenmangu, one of the country's principle shrines.

The nearby shrine is a sacred spot that dates all the way back to 919 A.D.

The shrine receives about 2 million visitors a year.